Volun"tourism"

Volunteering + Tourism = Voluntourism. Sounds like a great idea right? This is a notion that's been getting a lot of attention in the Tourism industry the past few years. Not only do people want to travel to exotic locations, but they also want to contribute to the local life and do some good while they are there. There are a ton of fascinating articles about this movement and especially about how different age groups are responding to the concept. At the Iowa Voyagers we've seen the need for volunteer vacations rise the past few years by the requests that we receive for such trips, especially by the student population.

For the past few years we have offered a service trip to Romania that has two options a) work with babies and toddlers in a failure-to-thrive clinic (which is much like an orphanage) or b) teach conversational English skills to middle school students. We offer our trip through a company called, Global Volunteers (http://www.globalvolunteers.com/), who have a great trip put together!

If you would like more information on our Romania trip, which departs May 31, 2008, please feel free to send me an e-mail or come check us out at the Volunteer Fair tomorrow!

Or you can visit us on the web at http://www.iowalum.com/voyagers/Search/specificTrip.cfm?tripID=248 for more info on the Romania trip!

Also, look for future "guest" blogs from the previous scholarship winners on their experiences and for more on the history of our Voluntoursim program!

Chelsea